Editor’s note: This CNN Travel Series is sponsored or has been sponsored by the countries featured. CNN retains full editorial control over the subject matter, coverage, and frequency of articles and videos within the sponsorship, in accordance with its policies.
Macau, China —
Long before there was Tex-Mex or Viet-Cajun, there was Macanese cuisine, the world’s first fusion cuisine.
Macau was the first European colony in Asia. This small colony, located on two islands in southern China’s Pearl River Delta, opposite Hong Kong, became an important shipping and trade center.
The first Portuguese explorers arrived here in the 16th century. They shipped dried chorico sausage and aromatic olive oil from Iberia and mixed it with local Chinese rice and spices to create delicious new dishes.
Hundreds of years later, its culinary traditions live on in the streets of Macau, and these dishes are still eaten in many homes across the city. It feels like no visitor to this city can throw the proverbial stone without visiting a restaurant that sells mince (a flavorful ground pork served with rice), African chicken, egg tarts, and other traditional Macanese dishes.
UNESCO has already noticed. In 2017, the World Cultural Organization named Macau a Creative City of Gastronomy, celebrating nearly 500 years of culinary history that undoubtedly includes many influences.
But not everyone likes the “f” word.
“I have a problem with the word ‘fusion,'” says food anthropologist Annabel Jackson. “Since the ’80s, chefs have been talking about fusion as a very conscious combination of cuisines from different regions. I think that’s a pretty derogatory term, and I don’t think you can use it to talk about a cuisine that was created 500 years ago.”
So what is Macanese cuisine? Jackson, who has written several books on the subject, distinguishes between what she calls Macau cuisine and Macau cuisine. According to her definition, “Some dishes literally come out of the kitchens of people who live in Macau and have Portuguese ancestry, while others are hybrid dishes that are more local interpretations of Cantonese cuisine.”
For example, African chicken can be found in almost every restaurant in Macau. It’s as ubiquitous as, say, Thai green curry. However, the version that most people eat today bears little resemblance to the version that originated when Portuguese sailors arrived in Macau from Malacca (now a historic region in southern Malaysia).
Originally, this chicken, which despite its name is not native to Africa, was prepared with ingredients such as bay leaves and coconut milk. But these days, it’s commonly served with a tomato and peanut sauce reminiscent of satay.
One of the historic islands that is part of Macau, Taipa Island was once home to traditional Chinese and Portuguese villages. Today, it is best known for Cotai, home to the ultra-exclusive casinos that helped Macau earn the nickname “Las Vegas of Asia.”
However, the city has begun to shed that image in recent years. Macau’s local government is investing in heritage restoration and improvement with the aim of diversifying tourism services. One of these is the village of Taipa, which was once a fishing village but has long since lost its inhabitants. Today, this tree-lined, cobblestone area is home to cute shops, colorful murals, and a small museum focused on local history.
This is also where you will find the restaurant Casa Maquista, meaning “House of Macau,” which opened in 2024.
Inside a peppermint green building, two Portuguese-born, Macau-based chefs (who are also brothers) have established their vision for a contemporary Macau restaurant. Chefs Pedro and Mauro Almeida didn’t want to compete with Taipa’s many eateries that have been serving classic Macanese cuisine for generations.
Instead, they unearthed recipes that had disappeared from most home kitchens. Like many things in this city of 600,000 people, they relied on word of mouth. I asked friends, learned spice combinations from my grandma’s head, and unearthed old cookbooks from my family’s attic.
The result is a menu-style archive.
Don’t expect the niceties here that are the hallmark of many modern fine dining restaurants. We don’t use whisks or tweezers, and we don’t freeze anything that shouldn’t be served frozen.
Instead, there is a curry made with okra. Okra was once a popular ingredient in Macau, but fell out of favor in the early 20th century. The roast chicken uses turmeric, one of the ingredients introduced to Macau via India. Serradura, or “sawdust pudding,” is a Macanese no-bake dessert perfect for the city’s hot climate, with the restaurant’s name scrawled on top of a cookie crumb.
Decor is also part of the Almeida family’s vision. As its name suggests, Casa Maquista feels like the dining room of a wealthy Macau family. Visitors sit at elegant wooden tables, and the walls are decorated with traditional Portuguese pottery and sepia-toned photographs of old Macau.
The Almeida brothers, who grew up working in a family restaurant in the northern Portuguese town of Chaves, tell their own Macau story. Pedro came to Macau in 2016 with a week’s notice to take over the kitchen at a local restaurant. Since then, he has married a woman he met in Macau, convinced his brother to move to Asia, and learned enough Cantonese to communicate with suppliers and local eateries.
Macau became the last European colony in Asia when it became a Special Administrative Region of China (Special Administrative Region) in 1999, two years after Hong Kong was returned to China from Britain.
Recent Macau census data shows that Lusophones, or people who speak Portuguese as their native language, make up less than 2% of the population. Portuguese-inspired tile designs fill local squares, and neighborhood shops sell canned sardines and other products straight from Lisbon, but the easiest and surest way to discover Macau’s culture is on your dinner plate.
However, in the heart of Macau, near the Ruins of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Guia Fortress, and other famous historical attractions, is Calle Jorge Alvarez. Just two blocks long, this nondescript side street includes a few working-class apartment buildings and a Pizza Hut.
But the name has a lot of meaning. Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvarez is believed to be the first recorded European to visit China by sea. First arriving around 1513, he and his men traversed many parts of what is now known as the Pearl River Delta, from Guangzhou to Hong Kong and here in Macau.
It is unlikely that Alvarez knew how his initial arrival in Macau had such a lasting impact. However, even after five centuries, the encounter between Sino-Portuguese culture still remains.
